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Having a cesarean section to deliver your baby is nothing to be taken lightly. Despite the fact that one out of four babies are delivered surgically in the United States, it still is major abdominal surgery and the recovery from it significant.
Initially, the pain you will feel is like a knife cutting through your belly. Medication administered in the hospital will ease it some, but won't take it away completely. The first time you get out of bed will be the most difficult. From there, everything gets easier even though it may not seem like it at first.
The nursing staff will inform you on how to care for your incision, now you just need to figure out how to care for you and your family once arriving home.
The best way to recover from a c-section is to have help available to you in the form of friends or family. You will be unable to climb stairs for awhile and not be driving for at least one month in most cases. So someone is going to need to take up the slack in what you won't be doing while you recovery from surgery and care for a newborn.
This is a good time for the new mother to be mothered. Adequate rest and nutrition are vital to a smooth recovery. Moving about will be difficult for some time as the muscles that were cut in your belly are healing. Sitting and standing along with going to a lying-down position will require the utmost in caution. Move slowly and hold your belly with a pillow if need be. This gives you some security and helps reduce pain when moving yourself into different positions.
If you can have help some of each day, request that they help you take care of your baby first and provide you with good meals and snacks. Even changing a diaper can be taxing and learning to breastfeed will add to the challenge as would trying to take time to prepare formula in bottles.
Something else your helpers can do is hold your baby while you get some extra rest. As long as your baby has been fed, a little nap for you would do wonders for your recovery.
Another thing to pay attention to during this time is the risk of infection in your incision. Monitor your temperature daily, ideally, for two weeks, and report any changes to your physician. Not only can the outside of the incision become infected but a uterine infection could also develop.
So, don't push yourself in those first six weeks and give yourself a good chance to heal so you can care for your new bundle of joy.
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